He is often accompanied by his dog "K-9", and sometimes by other creatures: One gag, first used in Hare-Way to the Stars (1958), involved candy-sized "Instant Martians" that become full-size upon addition of drops of water.

Marvin wears a Roman soldier's uniform, with basketball shoes resembling the Chuck Taylor All-Stars brand.

The curved crest of his helmet appears, with the push-broom-like upper section, to comically resemble the helm of an ancient Greek hoplite, or the galea of a Roman centurion.

The appearance of the combination of Marvin's head and helmet led to Bugs Bunny referring to him as a "bowling ball wearing a spittoon" in one short.

Marvin always laboriously over-pronounces the name of the device, which resembles a stick of dynamite, in order to avoid any possibility of confusing it with some other similar form of explosive technology.

Over a decade prior to any of these, he guest-starred in a Tiny Toon Adventures segment titled "Duck Dodgers Jr.", where he was accompanied by an apprentice named Marcia the Martian.

Marvin also made appearances on Animaniacs, notably in the Mindy and Buttons short subject, "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam" (which also featured the cute kitten Pussyfoot) and in "Star Warners", along with his dog K-9, and most recently in a MetLife commercial.

Cartoon Network also created a 2-minute filler piece featuring Marvin, entitled "Mars Forever" by Fantastic Plastic Machine.

It's a disco-style video combining clips of Marvin and Bugs Bunny from their encounters in "Haredevil Hare", "Hare-Way to the Stars", as well as bits of "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" and "Rocket-Bye Baby".

He also appeared in Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time for the PlayStation where he was the boss of Dimension X, and in the final level of Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf.

In the film's climax, he reappears to bring the Blue Monkey diamond to the ACME satellite, but is thwarted by Bugs (who he duels in a parody of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones) and Daffy (who arrives as Duck Dodgers to save Bugs after he is exhausted from the battle).

In nearly all of his appearances, Marvin is shown using a raygun that fires either bubbles of pliable plastic or energy beams, and he is seen in Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, with Gossamer, a hairy red monster, as his assistant.

Marvin is a minor character in Space Jam: A New Legacy, voiced by Eric Bauza, where he appears alongside K-9 after Bugs claims Tune World in the name of the Earth.

On July 29, 2008, Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment announced plans for a live action/animated film starring Mike Myers as the voice of Marvin and Christopher Lee as Santa Claus.